


just fine

by TrasBen



Series: Skeleton Shipping [11]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Dream baby no, Dreamtale Dream (Undertale), Dreamtale Dream/Ink | ____tale Sans (Undertale), Dreamtale Nightmare (Undertale), Drink (Undertale) - Freeform, Illness, Ink | ____tale Sans (Undertale), Jealousy, M/M, Obsession, Self-Destruction, That's not how relationships work, Toxic Relationship, Unrequited Love, Vomiting, does not follow canon dreamtale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26761189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrasBen/pseuds/TrasBen
Summary: Ink is a genius, and Dream is the only one who can see it.And that's just fine with him.
Relationships: Sans/Sans (Undertale)
Series: Skeleton Shipping [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1403878
Comments: 10
Kudos: 85





	just fine

Ink is a genius.

Nobody else sees it, not like _Dream_ does. How his eye lights shine and flip between shapes rapidly, how he loses himself in thought and his proud posture slumps for only a fraction of second.

When Ink takes a moment to stop and laugh, Dream feels like his apple core might burst.

When those eye lights focus on him, Dream feels like he could fall to dust, content.

Always quick with his words, quick on the draw.

And _oh,_ how he draws. Dream could lose himself staring at Ink's deft hands, watching as Ink breathes life and magic into color through nothing but his mind and sheer will.

An unshakable will that holds the multiverse together.

Dream has pledged complete allegience to Ink and his cause. Would do it a hundred times over again. A million, even. Just to have Ink look upon him with those special eyes, to wonder with a private sense of thrill what the Creator sees when he turns his gaze unto Dream. If he thinks of Dream as holding even a _fraction_ of the beauty the Guardian sees in him.

But when Ink turns his gaze away, Dream wilts.

Of course he understands, though. A being like Ink, so inspired, cannot be content with only one muse.

And Dream will _gladly_ do anything for Ink.

Even if that means waiting days, weeks, months, for _years_ until Ink comes back to Dream.

He will remain devout. He won't rest until he feels Ink's warm, paint stained hands on his own, until he feels the familiar pump of his apple core speeding up in the way that it only does when Ink is around.

Ink. Ink. _Ink_.

Souless Creator. 

A god in the eyes of the multiverse.

Immortal, immature, ingeneuous.

The one who helped to bring life back into Dream after centuries trapped in stone. The one who will eventually bleed Dream dry of everything he's made from. 

* * *

Slumped against the rocky cavern wall of some Underswap offshoot's Waterfall, Dream is hemorrhaging golden magic from between his teeth, from his eye sockets, from his nasal cavity. Although familiar, it's agonizing. Every single time Ink leaves.

And it doesn't, won't stop. It won't _stop_ , Dream is on his knees wretching and yet it _still_. _Won't. Stop_. It hurts, hurts like a thousand needles stuck into Dream's apple core and like acid sliding down his throat. 

Cold, Dream is so cold. His freezing phalanges dig into the soft earth under him. A sudden wave of vertigo rocks his senses, sending him tumbling down, thankfully inches away from the puddle of sick.

But there's more still leaking. From his chest, now, as if his core is rejecting his own magic. As Dream shivers on the ground, he wonders if he's crying or if it's more magic sliding down his skull. It's almost completely deadening.

Another pang of dizziness and Dream feels like he might fall upwards and fly apart into nothingness.

His sockets slip shut as he shudders and gasps for the first breath in minutes.

Eventually, the flow of magic slows to a steady trickle. The worst is over.

Still, Dream remains on the ground, wary of pushing himself after such an episode. Exhaustion falls over him like a cloud over a field as his breathing evens out. The sounds around him fall away, replaced by buzzing on one side of his skull and sharp ringing on the other.

It could have been either minutes or hours until the ringing is replaced by the crunch of shoes against soft grass and rocks. The steps come closer, until they stop and the air next to Dream's skull is displaced. Gentle warmth radiates from whoever it is, yet Dream doesn't stir.

A single phalanx comes to trace the lines of drying magic winding down from Dream's sockets. It's warm and has the texture of something that should be wet, but isn't. Oily.

He knows who it is, but the voice confirms it.

"Found you..." Nightmare coos almost playfully. "You're too easy, really, brother."

Dream doesn't answer. Can't, really. His chest still aches too much from almost heaving his SOUL up. But he does tilt his head a little, just enough that Nightmare can feel the change is pressure against his hand. To let him know that Dream's listening.

"I felt it, you know. Like I always do." Nightmare continues. Dream holds onto his brother's voice, clinging to it like a lifeline. The easy cadence it has, deep and soft like Nightmare is always telling some sort of secret. "The _exact_ moment that there was a spike in errant positivity... a cry for help."

Dream's tired face manages to pull itself into a small grin. "You.." he coughs, a little bit of magical discharge being expelled from between his teeth, but before he can speak again, Nightmare silences Dream by pressing his thumb hard into the space under Dream's left eye socket.

Dream gasps while Nightmare continues, unhurried. It hurts, but the pain is nothing like before. It's a dull ache, and Dream can feel the bruise forming already. Despite this, there's no rush of resentment, no anger in Dream.

He's made from positivity, those emotions would be completly discordant with his very being. Everything hurts, and Dream is fine. Like he's always been. Just, fine. Nightmare's attentiveness even flatters Dream.

"I could kill you. You're completely alone right now, bleeding positivity into the dirt." The gentle tracing from earlier resumes. "But... where's the fun in that? You're so pathetic. And you don't even care. Not _once_ , not _even_ _once_ when I have found you like this have you been remorseful. Even now, you're smiling. It's disgusting. I hate it."

Nightmare's frustration seems to be mounting, but his touches remain feather-light. Nightmare's phalanx is now tracing Dream's teeth, thumb hooking into his bony cheek so he can pull Dream's grin wider.

" _Ink_ doesn't deserve to see this smile." Nightmare hisses. "That idiot bucket of paint would sooner drop dead than be worthy." His words come almost reverently, his grip on Dream's face tightening. He'll get another bruise from this.

Dream doesn't mind his brother's abhorrence of Ink; nobody really _sees_ the artist like Dream does. And that's just fine, Dream would prefer to be the only one who sees _Ink_ for the rest of time and then some.

He wills a shaking hand up to where his brother's own is gripping his face, and rests it gently on Nightmare's wrist. Nightmare's large, singular eye light zips to Dream's own lights. His hold weakens and slips until he's no longer gipping Dream's face, but his offered hand.

In this moment, Nightmare holds Dream's hand like it's _his_. Nightmare holds everything that belongs to him tightly and dearly. Dream used to belong to Nightmare, years and years ago.

"I hate you." Nightmare says sincerely, looking right at Dream. There's not even a hint of disappointment that might squeeze Dream's apple core. He feels nothing but complete obession from his brother, dark and tinged with negativity. "You should never look at Ink. You should never think about him or smile at him. Ink can't love you."

"I know, I..." Dream attempts to rasp. Nightmare's words have struck something surprisingly painful in his chest. He can't place the feeling. But it's not pleasant.

" _Quiet_." Nightmare growls, "Ink can't love you. He'll never be able to love you. But your stupid SOUL refuses to acknowledge it. It's why you're _dying._ " He laces Dream's phalanges with his so tightly Dream suspects he might pop off the distal ends accidentally.

"That's why everybody loves you. Your SOUL eases theirs, it finds insecurities and fills them and it makes people _happy,_ and _you_ feed off of it. But you'll never make Ink _happy_. Because he. _has. No. SOUL."_ Nightmare is seething, and Dream believes he can feel the beginning of the magical joints in his hands disassociating from each other. "You keep _pouring_ magic into Ink but _he. Can't. Feel. It."_

Dream wheezes as the pain in his hand peaks, and it's so unpleasant that even he is moved, "I don't care!" He cries, the first sentence he's been able to get in edge-wise. He rips his hand from Nightmare's, who lets it go easily at Dream's utterance.

He stares down at Dream with a much smaller eye light than before, he speaks softly and swiftly. "- And when he leaves, the magic you've been putting out has nowhere to go but _out._ He's a parasite, a pest. And one day he'll leave and you'll bleed dry. And when that happens..." Nightmare shuts his sockets, breathes in deeply through his nasal cavity, and brushes his hands along Dream's clothed rib cage.

He pauses for only a second before his sockets snap back open and his stare pierces right through to Dream's SOUL."And when that happens, I'll find you like I always do... and your SOUL will finally be mine."

"... I don't care." Dream repeats weakly. It doesn't bother him, the thought of his own death. He's always known that Ink will kill him one day. To die in service of _the_ Creator... that's just _fine_ to him.

Nightmare stands abruptly, removing himself from Dream completely. Dream can feel the hot rage flowing through him. Nightmare makes a snarling noise, low in his throat. "So I'll see you then, _brother_." And like that, he's gone.

_Just fine._

**Author's Note:**

> hey so imma leave this here and disappear probably until next year! sorry but 2020 is killing me and i just need to get my life together haha
> 
> anyways drink/brotherly dreammare angst!! tell me what u think r smth maybe ;)


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